The Soil Association and PAN UK are exposing how mixtures of pesticides commonly found in UK food, water and soil may be harming the health of both humans and wildlife.

Their latest report, The Cocktail Effect, shows around a quarter of all food, and over a third of fruit and vegetables, consumed in the UK contain pesticide cocktails, with some items containing traces of up to 14 different pesticides.

The report also reveals evidence of pesticide cocktails in our environment. Shockingly, mixtures of ten different chemicals were found in UK soil and water with the potential to affect wildlife like birds and bees.

Given the wide variety of different active ingredients used in food production, pesticides almost always appear in mixtures, commonly referred to as ‘pesticide cocktails’.

There is a growing body of evidence showing pesticides can become more harmful when combined, even when each individual chemical appears at levels at or below its “no-observed-effect-concentration”. This phenomenon is known as the ‘cocktail effect’.